The Regular Season starts 4 January 2018 with the Tournament of Champions and lasts 32 weeks, ending on the week of the PGA Championship in August.

The Final Series will start on 23 August, featuring 8 premier events from both PGA and European Tours, concluding with the DP World Tour Championship in November.

A couple of big changes in 2018:

Brand new scoring system. Points awarded will be based on the odds, not just for the winner, but also for players who finish 2nd to 10th. Competitors will score points from all 5 picks, not just the best placed one. No more minimum points for a winner, or bonus for weekly doubles.

Final Series will be a knockout format with 16 qualifiers. Each round takes place over 2 legs. So there will be a Round of 16, Quarter-Finals, Semi-Finals, and Grand Final/3rd place match. The winner of the Grand Final will be the 2018 Masters Series Champion!

To be eligible for prizes, competitors must tweet their picks to @tipsterstour throughout the Final Series.

PRIZES£800 in Amazon gift vouchers up for grabs!2018 Champion = £500,Second place = £200,Third place = £100.To be eligible for prizes, competitors must tweet their picks to @tipsterstour throughout the Final Series.

Dead heat rules will apply for tied positions. For example, a 2-way tie for 3rd place would be Odds x 20, a 2-tie for 4th would be Odds x 14.5, and a 6-way tie for 8th would be Odds x 1.

The 4 majors are x3 points, and the following tournaments will be x2 points in 2018: All WGC’s, PLAYERS Championship, plus all Rolex Series events on the European Tour.

Where a player’s score results in a fraction, it will be rounded down to the nearest whole number. Scores for all players earning points will be posted each week along with the updated standings.

For any tournament featuring 20 players/teams or less (eg GolfSixes), competitors pick ONE player/team, and score Odds x 100 if their player/team wins, and no points otherwise.

For team events (eg EurAsia Cup), competitors make ONE score prediction, and score Odds x 100 if it’s exactly right, and no points otherwise.

Odds

Odds used for scoring are published on the Tuesday prior to tournament. The odds used, taken from Oddschecker, will be the best price from 10 boomakers. See https://tipsterstour.wordpress.com/2018-masters-series/ for list of bookmakers used.

Automatic Picks

So that it’s not a disadvantage to miss the occasional week, competitors who fail to post on time will be assigned automatic picks. These will be the 5 lowest odds selections.

This year, only exempt competitors (see list below) will be eligible for automatic picks.

3 allowed uses of automatic picks during the first 16 weeks, and a further 3 allowed uses during the remaining 16 weeks.

Exemptions

There is a limit of 72 competitors in the 2018 Masters series.

Category 1 (42 tipsters) – Top 50 from the 2017 Season with 40+ ranked tournaments in the August 2017 WGTR.

(Category 3 – Competitors who enter 10+ tournaments of the 2018 Regular Season will be granted exemption status, meaning they become eligible for automatic picks.)

So that’s a total of 49 exemptions, which means there are 23 spots available to make up the field of 72 elite golf tipsters.

These 23 spots will be allocated on first come first served basis in January 2018. Up to 8 additional entries may be allowed as alternates.

REGULAR SEASONFor each event, competitors select 5 players (plus one reserve player).Entries can be made on Twitter @tipsterstour or on the Betfair golf forum.The reserve will be used if one of the 5 first choice players doesn’t start the tournamen

1. 2017 Champion FRANKIETHETORY.2. Winner of the 2018 Qualifying Stage.3. The remaining qualifiers will be determined by Regular Season standings. So top 14 guarantees qualification. The cut mark might be anywhere between 14th and 16th.

Tied positions are somewhat unlikely with the new scoring system, but any ties will be resolved using the August 2018 World Golf Tipster Rankings (WGTR), which will be published following week ending 26 July 2018.

Schedule

Round of 1623 August – The Northern Trust31 August – Dell Technologies Championship

For each tournament, competitors select 5 players (plus one reserve player). A competitor cannot select ANY of the same players as their opponent.

The points in the Final Series are as for the Regular Season, multiplied by 10.

Competitors begin each round of the Final Series with their Regular Season points total.

There are 2 tournaments in each round. Points are carried forward from the 1st leg to the 2nd leg, within each round. However, points are NOT carried forward from one round to the next.

The competitor with the highest points total after the 2nd leg is the winner, and goes through to the next round. If there is a tie, the higher seed will go through.

Priority

For the 1st leg in each round, the lower seeded competitor in each match will have the priority until 14:00 UK time on the day before the tournament.

For the 2nd leg in each round, the higher seeded competitor in each match will have the priority until 14:00 UK time on the day before the tournament.

After this time, and until the deadline (22:00 UK time), the priority will go to whoever picks first. This means whoever picks last is obliged to select 5 different players to their opponent.

FINAL SERIESThe Final Series will be a knockout format with 16 qualifiers.Scoring will be as for the Regular Season, with x10 points.QualificationThere will be 16 qualifiers:1. 2017 Champion FRANKIETHETORY.2. Winner of the 2018 Qualifying Stage.3. Th

This section contains the finer details of the rules not already covered.

Incomplete Lineups. If a competitor has fewer than 5 players who start the tournament (due to withdrawals, or any other reason provided the initial entry was made in good faith), additional players will be supplemented according to the list used for the automatic picks. Such cases will not be deemed an actual use of automatic picks.

Ambiguous Picks. Consider these examples: “D Lee” could mean Danny or Dong-hwan, “Molinari” could mean Francesco or Edoardo. Generally speaking, a common sense approach will be adopted, and it will be assumed that the intended player is the one with the higher rank in the Official World Golf Rankings. To avoid doubt, it is always better to specify the full name (first and last) of all selected players.

Entries via Twitter. Any tweet to @tipsterstour containing selections will be accepted, but Direct Messages will NOT be accepted. Tweets containing selections must NOT be deleted for at least 7 days following the conclusion of the tournament. Also, tweets must be public (not protected).

Multiple Entries. Only one entry is allowed per person. In case an individual is found to be entering multiple times under different names, all such entries will be disqualified. In order to prevent possible abuses, we will NOT accept entries from newly opened Twitter accounts, except for competitors migrating from the Betfair forum (or possibly from another Twitter account).

Editing Picks. Once selections have been entered for a tournament, it is NOT allowed to change them later, except to replace a withdrawn player where no reserve is available or to nominate a new reserve player. Simple corrections or amendments to entries are also permitted, provided they are made within 10 minutes of the original entry and before any deadline.

Shortened Tournaments. If a tournament is cancelled, or where not enough holes are completed to make it an official result (usually 36 for European Tour, 54 for PGA Tour), all bets are void. In these cases, all competitors will score zero.

Deadlines. Deadlines for posting picks, unless otherwise stated, will be on the Wednesday prior to the tournament, at 22:00 UK time. Selections made after the deadline will NOT be accepted. For week 1 of the Regular Season, the deadline will be on Thursday 4 January at 14:00 UK time.

Early Deadlines. Will apply during week 32 of the Regular Season for competitors around the cut mark. The earliest such deadline will be 11:00 UK time on the day before the tournament.

Automatic Picks (Ties). The Official World Golf Ranking at the start of the tournament will be used to resolve any ties (for players with equal odds). For tournaments with a pairs format (eg Zurich Classic), it will be the player with the higher Official World Golf Ranking from each team. For team events (eg EurAsia Cup), the correct score prediction assigned will be the tie.

Automatic Picks (During the first weeks). Competitors receiving automatic picks during the first (up to 3) weeks of the Regular Season will only be shown on the leaderboard once they have become active in the competition.

Automatic Picks (Final Series). There are no automatic picks in the Final Series for competitors who fail to post. However, automatic picks may be called on if opponents select identical players, or if a player doesn’t start the tournament and there is no available reserve.

Competitors who fail to post for 4 consecutive weeks. Will be removed from the competition, and will lose their exemption status. They may enter again later on, if there are spots available, starting from zero points. Note that failing to post for ANY tournament on a given week goes down as a strike.

OTHER RULESThis section contains the finer details of the rules not already covered.Incomplete Lineups. If a competitor has fewer than 5 players who start the tournament (due to withdrawals, or any other reason provided the initial entry was made in

Seems to be making it complex for the sake of doing so to me, but I'm an old stick in the mud, so maybe its just me? I think the current system worked pretty fairly, in truth. Glad I wont be settling it, for sure!

I'll think on it, before January, anyway

Seems to be making it complex for the sake of doing so to me, but I'm an old stick in the mud, so maybe its just me? I think the current system worked pretty fairly, in truth. Glad I wont be settling it, for sure!I'll think on it, before January, any

No it's not change for the sake of it. Let's face it, the comp got a bit boring towards the end of the year, and even a couple of finalists dropped out. Same has happened in previous years. So the aim is to add a whole lot of excitement to the closing stages, and that's why we will have a knockout stage. Regular season points still make a difference. I think it's a good balance now (the new format has been tested extensively btw).

The new scoring system works well with the Regular Season and the knockout format, and that was the main reason to try to change it. But I think what we've come up with is just a million times better all round! There will be some big seeming numbers being scored but we will soon get used to it, and I am confident most will like the new format once we get going.

As for settling, it's all programmed and not a problem.

I will be disappointed if you don't enter, stephanie, as you are a stalwart of the competition and would be missed. But no way will anything be changing back.

No it's not change for the sake of it. Let's face it, the comp got a bit boring towards the end of the year, and even a couple of finalists dropped out. Same has happened in previous years. So the aim is to add a whole lot of excitement to the closin

Sorry EB but I don't like the idea at all. Stating the obvious; I, or anyone else, could have a blinding main season and come up with some great winners, sitting clear at the top, only to be knocked out a week later from someone potentially miles behind. Just feels a little off for me.

Also my picks are based on guys I find value odds so if I'm matched v someone who goes ahead and picks a few of the golfers I had planned, meaning I can't, it defeats my way of playing totally.

Admire the work you're putting into the competition though.

Sorry EB but I don't like the idea at all. Stating the obvious; I, or anyone else, could have a blinding main season and come up with some great winners, sitting clear at the top, only to be knocked out a week later from someone potentially miles beh

FRANKIE, yes, that could happen. Regular Season points do still count in the Final Series knockout stage. Chances are the difference between 1 and 16 seed will be at least 50k points. That's equivalent to a 50/1 winner in the Final Series, and probably then some. The 16 seed is going to have to pull out all the stops to win. But it could happen. We might see a few gubbings! The whole point is to add excitement.

As for not being able to pick the same as your opponent. It's at most 4 tournaments where you might have players that you want but can't pick. So in that case, just pick the next best that you can. Don't see a big issue there.

FRANKIE, yes, that could happen. Regular Season points do still count in the Final Series knockout stage. Chances are the difference between 1 and 16 seed will be at least 50k points. That's equivalent to a 50/1 winner in the Final Series, and probab

ANNOUNCEMENT: This competition will be discontinued on this forum from January 2018.

Various reasons for taking this decision now:

1) Firstly, some of the messages I've had to deal with in recent days from (a minority of) forumites. Well, the less said the better, but it's a good job I have a sense of humour!

2) Forum seems to be in terminal decline. Impossible to grow the competition if it is only on this forum.

3) It's a waste of time for me (and others) to post entries/threads/scores simultaneously on Twitter and here.

4) I'm just a bloke who is a fan of golf betting/fantasy games, and run the competition for the fun of it. It's not a business, and I have no intention of it ever being one. Betfair is not involved in the competition (I think some on here seem to think I'm in customer services lol)! So for these reasons, I just feel more comfortable with the competition being on Twitter.

Make no mistake, I am committed to this competition and am looking forward to 2018 already!

Obviously, not everybody from here will join us for whatever reason. Thank you to all who have entered on this forum over the past years, and sorry if this news comes as a disappointment to some.

I will of course continue to post threads/scores etc on this forum for the remainder of the Qualifying Stage.

ANNOUNCEMENT: This competition will be discontinued on this forum from January 2018.Various reasons for taking this decision now:1) Firstly, some of the messages I've had to deal with in recent days from (a minority of) forumites. Well, the less said

entries on wednesday before start of tournament might be stuffed by a wednesday start and somebody will complain !

good luck to all too, hope others can do as i did and open a twitter account, its been easy.

good work sirnot sure how its all going to work in practice but sounds goodentries on wednesday before start of tournament might be stuffed by a wednesday start and somebody will complain !good luck to all too, hope others can do as i did and open a

CMI - I was referring mostly to PM's I received. Anyway, all will be forgiven in the new year and ALL are welcome as ever.

I'm happy for the decision that's been made. People might have different views about Twitter, but one thing I do know, is that nobody can write on your timeline, except you!

Cheers donny! CMI - I was referring mostly to PM's I received. Anyway, all will be forgiven in the new year and ALL are welcome as ever.I'm happy for the decision that's been made. People might have different views about Twitter, but one thing I do k

Cheers qqking. I glad most are happy about the new format, and especially the scoring. It's been designed to reflect the each way terms offered by bookmakers in golf markets (1/4 odds 5 places, 1/5 odds 6 places, etc), while maintaining a progression for positions 2 to 10.

Now, with that in mind, the committee has approved a small amendment to the 2018 scoring system outlined above. There will be a 200 point bonus for picking a winner. This change goes some way to addressing the fact that the "stake" is retained when a winner is picked.

In any case, the competition will be on Twitter only and NOT on this forum in 2018. The official version of the rules is here:

https://tipsterstour.wordpress.com/2018-masters-series/

And if there are any changes to that page, it will be announced on Twitter (@tipsterstour).

Cheers qqking. I glad most are happy about the new format, and especially the scoring. It's been designed to reflect the each way terms offered by bookmakers in golf markets (1/4 odds 5 places, 1/5 odds 6 places, etc), while maintaining a progression

Same goes for anyone else joining from this forum with a newish Twitter account. Please just PM me your TwitterID on here to confirm.

Yes, you're in! Just wanted confirmation to guard against multiple entries.Same goes for anyone else joining from this forum with a newish Twitter account. Please just PM me your TwitterID on here to confirm.

Sorry guys. Packed in ashamedly last year when ye all were just too good. I do not do twitter so am posting here in the hope that this can be my re introduction to the fold.

Sentry Tournaments of Champions 2018

RahmMatsuyamaSpeithFowlerKoepka

1st Res Leishman. Thanks for the thumbs up Gareth.

Sorry guys. Packed in ashamedly last year when ye all were just too good. I do not do twitter so am posting here in the hope that this can be my re introduction to the fold.Sentry Tournaments of Champions 2018RahmMatsuyamaSpeithFowlerKoepka1st Res L

EB. I entered last week on Tuesday on Twitter. I know I had Dustin, Koepka and Matsuyama, can't remember the others. Can you check and tell me if I'm doing anything wrong. Sent two tweets today, don't seem have arrived on Tipsterstour. Many thanks.

EB. I entered last week on Tuesday on Twitter. I know I had Dustin, Koepka and Matsuyama, can't remember the others. Can you check and tell me if I'm doing anything wrong. Sent two tweets today, don't seem have arrived on Tipsterstour. Many thanks.

Hi Quincy. If you are using a PC, then there's a search box on the top right of the page. If on mobile, it's the magnifying glass. This is very useful! Just type tipsterstour in there, and you will find what you are looking for.

Hi Quincy. If you are using a PC, then there's a search box on the top right of the page. If on mobile, it's the magnifying glass. This is very useful! Just type tipsterstour in there, and you will find what you are looking for.

Yes automatic picks do apply and if you joined this week you'd be in 13th overall. That's out of 56 entries so far. But you need to enter no later than next week to take advantage of this. After that, there is no guarantee that you will be able to enter at all, because there is a limit of 72 competitors.

To all who haven't entered yet, you are missing out on the best competition ever!

Yes automatic picks do apply and if you joined this week you'd be in 13th overall. That's out of 56 entries so far. But you need to enter no later than next week to take advantage of this. After that, there is no guarantee that you will be able to en

These changes are good, imo. There were some pieces of closeness and bad fortune which would have put me somewhere near the top of the leaderboard had these rules been in place last year (that isn't meant to sound remotely sour grapes, btw).It might take a few readings of the finer points to grasp the system properly.So, Kudos to you sir.

I don't use twitter... I'm going to need to go against a social media principle if I want to enter, aren't I?Am I too late anyway?

It has to be said, the decline of the forum together with some of it's trolling users has contributed to my no linger running any competitions as well, so I completely understand where you're coming from.

These changes are good, imo. There were some pieces of closeness and bad fortune which would have put me somewhere near the top of the leaderboard had these rules been in place last year (that isn't meant to sound remotely sour grapes, btw).It might

Well yes, as you rightly say the new format would indeed have benefited you last year. So much so, I actually had you as the number 1 ranked tipster coming into this year's competition if you would have entered. But knowing your views about "social media", I didn't bother to even contact you about the competition this year.

You are of course very welcome to come and join in on Twitter. Please PM on here with your Twitter ID if you do decide to join (so I know that you are not someone trying to enter multiple times).

You would be at a slight disadvantage because next week is week 5 already, and all automatic picks have now expired.

We've got a great competition going on this year (3 comps in fact). And I think you will like it once you try it!

Hi there Study!Well yes, as you rightly say the new format would indeed have benefited you last year. So much so, I actually had you as the number 1 ranked tipster coming into this year's competition if you would have entered. But knowing your views